Enterprise Resource Planning (“ERP”) software is a type of software used by many organizations to plan and manage various business functions, such as budgeting, accounting, human resources, inventory, customer relationships, sales, and so on. ERP software typically provides access to a database from which users and applications may retrieve information related to the various business functions. The database may contain a wealth of information about the organization and its customers. For example, the database may include a customer table that contains a comprehensive list of all the customers along with detailed information about each customer. The detailed information may include contact information, customer addresses, customer industry codes, names of principals of the customers, relationships with members of the organization and the principals, and so on. As another example, the database may include a sales history table that provides a record for each sale made to a customer along with sales details such as product identifier, quantity, price, sale date, and so on.
A sales organization, such as a company selling a product, can increase its sales by making additional sales to its current customers or by expanding its customer base to new customers. Traditionally, sales organizations identify potential customers, also referred to as “leads,” in various ways. For example, a sales organization may sponsor a booth at a trade show and develop leads based on discussions with attendees or business cards provided by attendees. As another example, a sales organization can develop leads using advertisements that describe their products and provide telephone numbers that a potential customer can call to obtain additional information. The World Wide Web has provided additional opportunities for sales organizations to expand their customer base. A sales organization may provide a web site through which potential customers can access information on products being offered for sale. The web site may provide very detailed information about the products including product specifications, video typically provides an information request web page through which a potential customer can register to receive additional information about the products. The information request web page may prompt the user to provide their name, their title, the company they represent, their electronic mail address, their telephone number, and so on and may allow the user to request additional product information, ask to talk to a salesperson, and so on.
A sales organization may also attempt to identify leads based on contacts with a potential customer. For example, a sales organization may identify an employee of the potential customer who has the authority to make a purchasing decision for a product being sold by the sales organization. Once the employee is identified, the sales organization needs to determine the best way to contact that employee. Clearly, if a person within the sales organization already has a relationship with that employee (e.g., they are friends, attend the same church, or are alumni of the same university), then that person may be a good candidate to make the initial contact with the identified employee. When the company of the sales organization and the potential customer both have hundreds or thousands of employees, it can be virtually impossible for the sales organization to identify the correct employee of the potential customer or to determine who within their company might have a relationship with the identified employee or another employee of the organization that could assist in making an initial contact.
Many organizations face similar problems when they are trying to increase their membership. For example, a company may want to identify all the persons that the company may want to hire, a charitable organization may want to identify potential contributors, a political organization may want to identify potential members, and so on. In addition to identifying potential members, these organizations would also like to identify persons with appropriate relationships with the potential members who could assist in making a successful introduction to the potential members.